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Sarge is a four-piece band from southern
Illinois whose recent attention is definitely deserved. Their second album,
The Glass Intact, is full of guitar-laden power pop with catchy
melodies and clever hooks.
Here, band members Elizabeth Elmore and
Rachel Switsky talk about their music, feminist boys, and why they hate being called a girl band.
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O3: When I first heard that you were playing
Detroit fest, I figured you'd be a really metal band or something because of
the name. Happily, you were not metal. Where did you come up with the name Sarge?
Rachel: My friend Angie Heaton, who played
drums in the band I played with in college called Corndolly, talked about this
couple from her hometown, this couple named Sarge and Precious. We always thought
this would be a great band name, and when Elizabeth and I started playing together
in 1995, the name Sarge and Precious came to mind. We just shortened it to Sarge.
O3: There's a noticeable difference between
Charcoal and The Glass Intact. If you compare a punky song like
"Dear Josie, Love Robyn" with something more mellow like "Charms and Feigns,"
there's a very distinct difference in the style and complexity of the songs.
Do you think that this type of growth just evolved as you played together, or
did you consciously decide to aim for a different style?
Rachel: I think the style and complexity
of Sarge songs came about 'cause Eliz became a more dynamic and mature songwriter.
Elizabeth: Honestly, probably both. Pop
punk can be sorta boring and simplistic musically so as I learned to play guitar
better, I tried to push myself to write more interesting and complex songs.
The music I like tends to be more complex (Jawbox or Braid). There are still
a couple of songs on The Glass Intact that are punk-pop and they're really
fun to play, but they're nothing that hasn't been done a thousand times before
and probably better. It's sorta easy to write some toss-off pop-punk song with
all the cute little breaks and hooks but it's not very satisfying because it's
not very creative or expressive. I've been trying to write songs with more nuance
musically and lyrically. Also, on The Glass Intact we're better musicians.
We were really inexperienced when we recorded Charcoal. This time we
had a better feel for recording and I had a much stronger point of view about
how it should sound. This CD sounds a lot more rock - a better reflection of
how we sound live.
